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Suicide prevention signs to be placed on Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena

PASADENA — City officials earlier this week approved a plan to post suicide-prevention signs on Colorado Street Bridge.
The Pasadena Public Safety Committee approved the project at their meeting Monday, Pasadena spokeswoman William Boyer said.
More than 150 people have jumped to their deaths from the bridge since the bridges first recorded suicide in 1919, city officials said. The bulk of the suicides took place during the Great Depression, however 13 suicides have occurred at the bridge since 2006.
Some have come to call the structure “Suicide Bridge” because of the deaths that have taken place there.
In an effort to combat the issue and save lives, the committee approved plans to place bearing messages of hope and suicide prevention hotline phone numbers at the pedestrian entrances to the bridge, Boyer said. The final design of the signs was not complete, however officials were considering messages such as “There is hope,” and “You are not alone.”
The signs were tentatively expected to be put in place in August.
“The key point is that we value human life and we want to keep our residents safe,” Boyer said. “There have been studies that have been done. The survivors of attempted suicide, for the most part, regret their actions.”
“We’re coming up with language and a message to give people and extra moment to contemplate what they’re doing,” Boyer said.
He added that similar programs have been successful in other jurisdictions in helping to prevent suicides by giving those who are considering taking their own lives “an extra moment to pause.”

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